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Capacity building enables nonprofit leaders and organizations to develop the skills and resources they need to improve their work. Since each situation is unique and circumstances are always changing, effective capacity-building support is tailored to best suit the needs of grantees. This publication offers practical guidance and considerations to help grantmakers design an impactful approach.

Foundation leaders have a unique opportunity to serve as powerful champions of their missions. Partnering with your grantees can amplify your impact. The following guide is designed to help you start having an honest conversation in the boardroom; a conversation about your foundation’s goals, approach, and, most importantly, vision for the future.

Impact Investing Bootcamp: Fundamentals for Driving Sustainable Philanthropy in New Jersey is a 3-part series introducing CNJG members to impact investing. The series will take place from March to May 2024.

The Council on Foundation defines impact investing as “any investment activity that intends to generate positive social and financial returns. Whether called impact investing, mission investing, social investing, social-impact investing, mission-related investing, program-related investing, or sustainable and responsible investing, the practice focuses on activating new financial resources to solve social and environmental problems.”

Impact investing as a tool can generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside financial returns. By attending this series you will:

• Learn the fundamentals of how to create a more sustainable model of philanthropy through impact investing tools.
• Hear from experienced practitioners.
• Learn how to successfully integrate grantmaking and investment resources.
• Participate in interactive discussions with local peers.
• Hear examples of investments made in New Jersey and nationally.
• Attend a site visit to see impact investing in action.
• Receive a copy of the book “Impact Investing: The Practical Guide” by John Duong.

Session 1: In this full day workshop John Duong, founder and CEO of Kind Capital, will lead a dynamic and intensely focused full day of learning, knowledge-building, and exchange. The curriculum will include baseline information, the fundamentals of impact investment, methods and models, and opportunities for peer to peer and small group discussion and dialogue. A light breakfast and lunch is included.

COST: Free for CNJG Members
Registrants must attend all three sessions of the series.
Space Limited. No more than two people per organization can register.

Additional Session Information:
Tuesday, April 16, 2024, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm - Session 2: This session will feature a site visit to highlight a specific project and explore local case studies of NJ foundations implementing impact investment strategies. Grantmakers will have the opportunity to tour the project site, hear from nonprofit partners and participants, ask questions, and learn directly from those involved.

Thursday, May 16, Time TBD - Session 3: This virtual session will focus on setting the groundwork for New Jersey philanthropy to explore additional shared learning and co-investment opportunities. The discussion will be led by John Duong, Kind Capital.

Speaker:
Mr. Duong has been an investment banker at JP Morgan Chase, was founding Managing Director of Lumina Impact Ventures with Luminia, and was Program and Portfolio Officer with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. John holds an executive MBA with a concentration in management and entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School of Management.

This CNJG program is sponsored by: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Victoria Foundation and presented by Kind Capital.

Resources
The Impact Principles website
Planet Tracker website - Reports for climate focused investors
Catalyzing Finance for Racial Equity
RPA Impact Investing Handbook
Impact Investing: A Primer for Family Foundaitons
What Can Foundations Do to Foster Community Investment?
The Role of Impact Capital in Advancing Racial Equity
Impact Capital for Racial Equity: Investing with Intention and Measuring Impact
Emerging Sources of Community Investment Capital and Strategies to Direct it at Scale
Mapping the Journey to Impact Investing
Roadmap for the Future of Impact Investing: Reshaping Financial Markets
Community Foundation Field Guide to Impact Investing
Essentials of Impact Investing
Endowments & Investing
Place-Based Impact Investing: Three Briefs for Practitioners

New Jersey Impact Investment Landscape Scan

Already, 2025 has been a year unlike any other. The changes in federal policy are coming at a pace we’ve not experienced before. Not even a month in, the new administration immediately issued several significant Executive Orders (EOs), creating uncertainty across the social sector. From attempts to freeze Congressionally approved funding, to efforts banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and questionable tactics to slash the federal workforce; funders and nonprofit partners are gravely concerned about how the fabric of our democracy and the systems of constitutionally mandated checks and balances are fraying right before our eyes. To help you cut through the noise, the National Council of Nonprofits is tracking and continuously updating its analysis of the impact of these EOs on nonprofit organizations in real time.

This is the time to shore up relationships with colleagues and nonprofit partners. I’m grateful that in New Jersey, we have a strong partnership with the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits. Advocacy and policy are at the heart of the Center’s mission. They have been at the forefront of keeping us informed about the Office of Mangement and Budget's (OMB) freezing of federal grants and loans. I encourage you to:

1. Sign up for the Center’s email list for up-to-date, reliable information.
2. Ask your grantees and nonprofit partners to complete the annual NJ Trends and Outlook survey, launched today. This year, the survey is also collecting stories about how executive actions are impacting nonprofit organizations.

On behalf of philanthropy-supporting organizations, United Philanthropy Forum is also mobilizing to serve as a key source for accurate, reliable information with their newly created resource page, “Executive Actions Impacting the Philanthropic & Nonprofit Sectors."

Funders across the country are asking what they can do immediately. As I noted above, leveraging your partnerships and strengthening your relationships is key. Echoing sage recommendations from the Council on Foundations and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, here are other strategies for your consideration:

• Reach out to your grantees and nonprofit partners – don’t wait for them to reach out to you. They need to hear from you and know that you are championing their often-thankless work.
• Offer flexible funding and move funding quickly. Allow your grantees to repurpose their current grant funding to meet the needs of their organization and those they serve. Giving nonprofits every resource and tool they need to be nimble is critical.
• Share your funding opportunities with the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits to post on their revamped funding page.
• Get comfortable introducing your grantees to new partners, other grantees, and potential funders. This is how we build strong, resilient communities of practice and service.

We’re embarking upon untested times. As we celebrate Black History Month and Women’s History in March, it is important to remember that meaningful change starts and ends with partnership, collaboration, and advocacy. Philanthropy has a critical role to play in this equation.

To help you better understand the federal policy landscape, we’re hosting an eight-part Funder Briefing Series: Making Sense of Federal Policy: Understanding What it Means for
New Jersey, beginning in March. This series will provide an overview of key issues that directly impact philanthropy, and more broadly, the charitable sector. The first session, on March 13 at 4:00 pm., will focus on immigration.

In addition, we will be launching a web page with information and resources to help inform your decision-making, as well as reintroducing our policy infused e-newsletter, CNJG ...for the field. Covering both big 'P' and little 'p' policy issues, the first edition will land in your inbox later this month, providing key updates and relevant articles.

I want to end with some exciting news — Craig Weinrich has been promoted to Senior Director, Member Experience. Craig has been with CNJG for 11 years, and his leadership and dedication have been invaluable to our community. Please join us in congratulating him on this well-deserved promotion!

And channeling Craig – a quick reminder: it’s time to renew your CNJG membership. Please reach out to him if you have questions.

We look forward to engaging with you in the months ahead. Philanthropy has an important role during these tenuous times. Let’s use our collective power for good.
 
In solidarity,

Theresa Jacks, President and CEO
Council of New Jersey Grantmakers

We’ve all heard the African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” Partnerships and collaborations are how we don’t go it alone.

Just last week, one of our partners via United Philanthropy Forum, (our philanthropy-serving organizations network), Northern California Grantmakers offered an online briefing for funders throughout the nation to understand how the latest round of wildfires are impacting communities in the state, and what philanthropy can do. Good partners work together to galvanize support on issues of importance.

Partially because of our partnership as a member of the Forum, we are able to engage Phil Buchanan, President of The Center for Effective Philanthropy to give the keynote at the upcoming CNJG Annual Meeting & Holiday Luncheon. The CNJG staff heard Phil speak at the Forum's Annual Conference in July, and were inspired by his words. Good partners create opportunities to learn and grow.

Our partnership with the Center for Non-Profits is an exceptional example of two organizations working different sides of the same street to improve the whole community. A considerable portion of the partnership’s work over the years has been focused on addressing systemic issues prevalent in the social sector. We’ve tackled the overhead myth, government contracting, the true costs of providing programs and services, and more.

The upcoming Annual Meeting Pre-Meeting Workshop will continue this legacy of partnership and addressing systemic issues. President of the Center, Linda Czipo, and Tim Delaney, President of the National Council of Nonprofits will help us consider how to overcome power dynamics between funders and nonprofits, and how funders can create trusting and transparent relationships with grantees. We’ll also explore strategies to incorporate full cost funding – a key systemic issue that once solved - strengthens the effectiveness of grantmakers and grantees' work. Good partners stand shoulder to shoulder doing the hard work to make meaningful change.

When I asked google how to describe a good partnership – it came back with words like supportive, open, respectful, effective, genuine… And while these adjectives are spot-on requirements for a good partnership, we should also note that partnerships are hard and require constant care and attention. And so we are constantly vigilant to nurture, maintain and grow our partnerships. The value of working in partnership with others has long been a powerful strategy in the social sector. Nonprofit organizations understand that partnerships can be highly effective given the right mix of trust, communication, and an understanding of the unique strengths each partner brings to the table. Our partnerships clearly reflect this important mix.

Another type of partnership is the one between our member sponsors and our Signature events. Thank you to our sponsors of the Annual Meeting & Holiday Luncheon: Signature Sponsor – Novartis, Sustaining Sponsor – The Prudential Foundation, Speaker Sponsor – New Jersey Health Initiatives, Gift Sponsor – The Princeton Area Community Foundation, Program Sponsor – Novo Nordisk, Pre-Meeting Workshop Sponsor – Sixers Youth Foundation and Devils Care Foundation, Performance Sponsor – The Provident Bank Foundation, Contributing Sponsor – Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Supporting Sponsor – The Jay and Linda Grunin Foundation, with additional support provided by NJM Insurance Group. We greatly appreciate the generosity of our sponsors. We could not do this work without you. Good partners support one another.

The Council’s work relies on partnerships with a vast number of other organizations and entities. Among them: You and other CNJG members, colleague philanthropy-serving organizations, nonprofit associations, national affinity groups, government leaders, corporate stakeholders, communities throughout our state, and so many more either known or yet to be engaged.

We’re thrilled that we can showcase concrete examples of our partnerships up front and center at the CNJG Annual Meeting & Holiday Luncheon. I hope you’ll join us – register here!

“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” Words to live by.

In partnership,

Maria Vizcarrondo, President and CEO
Council of New Jersey Grantmakers

Any and all staff and/or trustees from new CNJG members and any new staff or trustees of veteran CNJG members are invited to this in-person meeting prior to the Annual Meeting and Holiday Luncheon Pre-Meeting Workshop to meet fellow new members and a few CNJG staff, hear about each other’s funding strategies, and learn about the programs and services CNJG offers. This is a great chance to meet fellow funders in a casual, yet professional setting, and build your personal network within the CNJG network. You’ll see these familiar faces throughout the rest of the day’s events..

Registration for CNJG’s Annual Meeting and Holiday Luncheon is separate from the New Member Orientation. Please register here for the Annual Meeting and Holiday Luncheon.

There is no cost to attend for CNJG members. A light breakfast, and coffee, tea, beverages will be available.

If you have any questions about who can or should attend, please contact Craig Weinrich, Director of Member Services at 609-414-7110 x802.